It disgusts me that politicians use ads to bash the other parties. Ads are meant to tell the voters why you should vote for them, but instead they bash the other part and tell the voters why not to vote for them. I know not all ads are like this, but during election time, it's very common.

I don't know about the ads in other countries, but here in Canada in the last few years at least, we've had several elections both federal and provincial, with several attack ads. One one included bird-excrement on the rival party leader. Something so childish was blown out of proportion.

I agree it kinda sucks, but there really isnt too terribly much you can do about it. I mean I assume most countries have some sort of "free speech" law that allows people to do this....

Political ads of any kind is illegal on TV in Norway. Unfortunately it looks like some of the right-wing parties will try to use some EU regulations or something to force through a change that would allow political parties to advertise on TV. That would inevitably open the door for attack ads as well.

Political ads of any kind is illegal on TV in Norway. Unfortunately it looks like some of the right-wing parties will try to use some EU regulations or something to force through a change that would allow political parties to advertise on TV. That would inevitably open the door for attack ads as well.

That's kind of odd... why is TV advertising banned? =\ and why would TV advertising in particular be smear advertising?

That's kind of odd... why is TV advertising banned? =\ and why would TV advertising in particular be smear advertising?

Because that's just the way it it, and has been. Political advertisement is basically propaganda. TV advertisement really does nothing to help the political awareness of people. There's also been the argument that it will be biased towards the bigger parties, or just the ones with more funds. Unlike the US, we've got a lot of different parties, some pretty small.

Canada has several parties at the Federal level, including the Conservatives, Liberals, New Democratic Party, Bloc Quebecois (Quebec only) and the Green Party. All of them get more than 99% of the votes and they have the money, particularly the first 3. The Conservatives (in power now) attack the #2 party (Liberals) and the Liberals attack the government along with the other parties.

I believe that if the ads actually told voters why they are the best candidates without bashing the other parties, people might give a shit. All I see is criticism and "oh, the x party did this and that, caused this and refuses to do that. Vote for me." Politics are dirty enough as it is without attack ads.